Review: The Broken Heart of Arelium

Some Things Must Never Be Forgotten.

Over 400 years ago, twelve great warriors united the beleaguered armies of men and scoured the war-torn lands of evil, pushing the enemy back into the underground pits and caverns from whence they came. To ensure their legacy, each of the Twelve founded fortress monasteries to impart their unique knowledge of war and politics to a select few, the Knights of the Twelve.

But now the last of the Twelve have long since passed from history to legend and the Knights, their numbers dwindling, are harbouring a dark and terrible secret that must be protected at all costs.

Merad Reed has spent half his life guarding a great crater known as the Pit, yearning for some escape from the bleak monotony. Then the arrival of Aldarin, one of the few remaining Knights of the Twelve, sets off a chain of cataclysmic events that will change Reed forever.

To the north, Jelaïa del Arelium, heiress to the richest of the nine Baronies, must learn to navigate the swirling political currents of her father’s court if she hopes one day to take his place. But the flickering flames of ambition hide the shadow of an even greater threat.

And deep within the earth, something is stirring.

Review: The Monster’s in the Details

Are monsters born, or do bad actors take shattered people and shape them like putty, molding them into unrecognizable shapes?

The Otherworld. Made up of Dayside and Nightside and separated by the Twilit Boundary, the Otherworld is a plane of existence lost from time, bursting with magic and vibrant life.

Kal floats on the verge of life and death, struggling to find a reason to keep on living. In an odd turn of events, Kal’s sylph familiar, Bell, may care more about keeping him alive than he does. Bell makes a deal with the merfolk on Kal’s behalf to save him from a fatal wound, but in doing so the wily fishes curse him to do their bidding.

To avoid his being killed outright by either the faery king Oberon, or Bell’s possessive father, Lord Eurius, Bell urges Kal to create his own legitimacy by leveraging faery politics for his own ends. At the pagan festival of Samhain, the last harvest, Bell pushes Kal to declare himself a champion.

More than a hundred champions galavant across the Otherworld in search of a kingly title shrouded in mystery and dark deceit, the mantle of the Seven Year King.

Kal will undergo his own crucible along his path of thorns. Tests, trials, and tribulations will force him to wrestle with his nature and face himself fully, warts and all. If he survives, Kal will emerge clothed in legitimacy and empowered to pursue his own ends.

Reviews © Copyright 2022 Korra Baskerville